"But I bet that the morning, in the morning, we'll find us in bloom…"

Post-Half Marathon & The Off Season

I’ve been enjoying some time off since my half marathon. The two weeks following the half I didn’t exercise at all and just focused on stretching and foam rolling. It was glorious. My calves were super sore from pushing so hard, so it was much needed. Saturday I went out for a short 2 miles just to loosen things up and this morning I headed out for a crisp morning 2 miler.

My foot has been bothering me a bit which is frustrating, but I figured it was mostly from tightening up from lack of activity. I have been making great progress with my sports chiropractor, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing any damage by running again so I decided to go see an orthopedist. I headed there this afternoon and after quite a bit of a wait, I was brought in and had some x-rays taken. Then I got to see the doctor, who is a runner himself.

Luckily, my x-rays were clean. No bone spurs and no collapsed arch. Good mobility and flexibility. Just an over-worked foot. The doctor showed me a new (and very uncomfortable, sometimes painful) way to massage the spot to help stretch it out. I was instructed to do so 3x a day for 3 minutes each time for about 4 weeks. Since I’m in my off season and won’t have another goal race until May, I was instructed to cross train for the next few weeks while it heals. If that doesn’t help, we will look into inserts for my shoes.

Behold, my foot! The circled spot is pen, just showing where my pain point is located.

Next week the mornings are going to be cold, in the 30s and 20s (Fahrenheit) so I’m not exactly sad to be in the gym. I ran this morning and enjoyed it once I was out, but honestly didn’t not feel like running when I got up. I’m still feeling a little burnt out from this last season and am happy to have an excuse to take some more time off from running. So for the next few weeks I’ll be on the bike and possibly rowing. I had been planning to keep my mileage to a very low minimum for the rest of the year and focusing on cross training since it’s my “off” season. If I am feeling better after Thanksgiving, I will use December to slowly start building my base back up. Then it’s easy training for a relaxed spring half before hopefully moving into training for a first marathon in the fall!